Jameson and the 'copter!

Jameson is obsessed with airplanes, helicopters, and anything else that can fly. Watching this helicopter land at national night out earlier in the week, made his day!

Making Good on a Promise

So I found a new ipad app for posting to my blog...let's test it out. As promised here are some pictures. There aren't many and they aren't great, but once I get this whole new system tested out, I'll post some better ones.

First, here is a little brotherly love in action! These two love each other, but they might kill each other!

And here is trouble. Jameson is a button pusher, what better than the blender buttons to push? Don't worry, the blender top and blade are tucked safely away from this boy. He is a hazard!

And here we have Brody the mustache man! He helped me make mustache lollipops for Auntie Laura's baby shower. That's right, another Jones baby is entering the world any day now!

This was a while back, but I love this picture of them watering the new tree we planted. I don't know how much they were actually concerned with the tree, but they loved having control over the water.

Jameson during one of his marathon lunch sessions. This kid can eat! And he looks good doing it, wouldn't you agree?

Speaking of food, here is Brody enjoying a frosty treat! This guy can out away Popsicles like it's his job!

We found a nice little beach by the river only about a 5 minute drive from our house. The water was warm enough for all of us to swim, and while the river sand wasn't ideal for building castles, it was a nice quick trip on a hot day when we couldn't make the trek to the ocean.

Jameson had a much more enjoyable trip to the ocean this year. At 15 months he was able to play in the sand and people watch much better than when he was just a few months last year!

And I happened to capture a rare moment of Brody giving Sammie love instead of giving him hell! Brody is our resident cop. He likes to make sure that everyone is doing everything the way it should be done. With Brody, there is a right way and a wrong way to do just about everything. He is very happy to point out when someone, human or furry, is doing something they aren't supposed to. While Sammie is a fabulous dog, he doesn't always live up to Brody's expectations for doing the right thing! Somehow though, from the looks of this moment, Brody found it in his heart to forgive him for not being perfect!

that's all folks. It seems that this new format will work pretty well, if I can just get myself to upload more pictures and find some time to clickity clack away on this slick new machine!

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Sorry for the Delay...

Ummmm...it's been a while huh? I have no excuse except that it's summer and busy and I had computer problems and did I mention that I work full time and I've been trying to live more in the moment and not spend so much time behind the computer...? Poor excuses, I know. The reality is, life is ridiculously busy. RIDICULOUSLY BUSY! And I'm trying to soak up every minute of my boys.

Jameson is walking and talking now and totally obsessed with airplanes and helicopters and anything that flies. Brody just turned 5 and his attitude is abundant. I thought at some point he would stop testing his limits, but I guess I just need to accept that kids test there limits at every age. Their approach just gets smarter and more calculated the older they get. Brody is also deep into the world of Legos right now. I never really played with Legos when I was little but, hello! Legos are awesome. Every time we go to Target or Toys R Us we tell Brody that we can't buy the big Lego sets because they're too much money. I don't know who is more bummed about it, him or me! Enough about Legos.

I got myself an iPad. A fancy, dancy iPad. It's pretty awesome. It's what I'm typing on right now! I have to figure out how to post my pictures to this blog with it though. So I apologize for a delay in the good stuff. I promise to post pictures soon. I also promise to try to write more frequently...in case anyone is still out there and wondering what we're up to on Snow Pond Road.

Living in the Moment

Yep, it's something I've been trying to do more of - living in the moment, enjoying the present, savoring this life before I open my eyes one day and realize that so much of it passed me by when I wasn't paying attention. You often hear people nearing the end of their lives talk about "the good old days" and then they go on to tell you some story of when they were in their thirties and their children were young and they worked long hours and had sleepless nights and they struggled to pay the mortgage and their family vacation consisted of day trips to the beach and on and on and on...and I realized that the moment I am living in - these very days - these are my good old days. And as challenging as my reality is sometimes, there is not one single ounce of my being that wants to waste my good old days. These days (all days really) are far too precious to waste.

And so I stepped away from the computer to think all of these thoughts and ponder how to make these days mean something. Really mean something and be enjoyable despite the everyday challenges of getting all the lunches made and getting to work on time. Meeting deadlines and juggling work and play.  Fitting it all in. Feeling successful at life. And... I can honestly tell you that I haven't come up with a single answer. I have no idea how to make it all work and succeed at life, but thinking about it - this life right now - simply thinking about it has made me more present. And that simple shift in thinking has made life more enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, I still wake up in the middle of the night most nights and I can't get back to sleep because there is something completely out of my control that my mind feels the need to worry about. I still raise my voice at Brody more than I should, but why for the love of Pete does he feel the need to move slow as molasses as soon as I need him to hurry? I still am late to everything despite my best intention, and there are a million other examples of how I fail on a regular basis. But for some reason lately, failing doesn't feel so bad. It feels pretty darn honest and human. I don't know what has come over me to give myself this break - some strange act of kindness toward myself - but I'll take it for whatever reason because it feels kind of nice to not be so hard on myself. To not feel like I always have to rush. To not be on guard all the time. To worry a little less and relax a little more.  It's been quite wonderful and while I realize that it likely won't last, I'm soaking it up for as long as I can and working really hard to stay in this moment.

Just look at how precious these moments are...

 At a sugar house for Maple Sugar Weekend

Jameson's First Birthday Party!

Eating Various Things

Getting Along

And not getting along!

Popcorn on movie nights!

Getting Boo-Boos

Missing Daddy

Planting trees and playing outside

Being Silly and Lovey

Happy Birthday Little Boy Blue (better late than never!)

Dear Jameson,
So we have made it through your first year...and we are all in one piece. I have loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you, before really, but when I saw your sweet face, your baby fine hair, your fingers and toes and all the perfection that is you, I fell in love completely. I don't know if I was ever really afraid that I wouldn't love another child as much as my first, but if I had been, that thought quickly vanished. I have loved every inch of you with my entire being right from the start. And while I expected you to be like your brother when he was a baby - since he was the only baby I had ever really known - you quickly let me know that was not to be the case!

You have become a pretty easy going guy 50% of the time...unless you want to eat, or wrestle the cat, or chew on the dog toys or some other activity that we prevent you from doing and then LOOK OUT! Let's just say that you are not full of patience. You are however in the other half of your time, full of belly laughs, silly grins, snuggle-love pats, and high fives. You are rough and tumble - the epitome of "boy". Your desire to listen to music and dance is nearly as ferocious as your desire to eat! And while, at your age, your brother was probably speaking in complete sentences to ask us to turn the music on (he has always been a verbal overachiever), you are content to point at the ipod and do a smiley little wiggle dance to let me know that you would like to hear some music while you nosh on your banana or waffle or the never-ending supply of cheerios that you so hot-temperedly demand!

You are content to do things your way, at your own pace, and you are confident with your not-so-little voice to make sure that we know when things aren't going as you planned. Like when you want to hit that irresistible button with the little orange light on the dvd player, but someone put that effing gate in your way so you can see the button, but you can.not.touch.it. Or when you want to play with Sampson's food and water dish and clink and clang them together in a mess all over the floor, or when you simply want to go to bed after your bath, but we make you get dried off and put on a diaper and jammies. We realize that this is torture for you, but I promise that we really have your best interest at heart. You are fairly Jeckyl & Hyde my boy.  A carefree, easy going soul one minute and then in a wound up little ball of fire and tears the next. It's quite exhausting and completely precious, and although I could do with a few less outbursts (particularly around dinner time in the middle of the week), it is who you are. My precious, firecracker boy!

I could go on and on about how you love to swing, and wrestle with your brother. How you know no fear - like seriously you know no fear and will likely give me regular panic attacks in the near future! How you have learned to give sweet kisses, and say "hi" whenever the phone rings, and eat half of my breakfast after you've already eaten yours. I have a million stories about you from just one year. I cannot wait to see what this lifetime together holds for us. Thank you for being my little boy blue. Thank you for making me a mother again - still - again. Thank you for smiling at me when you wake up from a nap as I slowly open the door to breath in your sweet baby air - while it's still smells of baby. I will love you forever...and then some.

Love ~Mama

If I had only known...

I was talking to my friend on the phone earlier today. She has kids about the same age as mine - her oldest is a year younger than Brody and her youngest was born a week after Jameson. She had just gotten back from bringing both of them shoe shopping (nuts I know) and was clearly worn out from the experience. I love talking to this friend because, although she stays home with her kids and I work, we are in relatively the same place in our lives in that we're trying to balance family and all of the other things that fill our lives. We are trying to make magical childhoods for our kids while still finding time for our husbands and ourselves (more so than the occasional shower and solo trip to the bathroom). A not-so-easy feat for anyone who hasn't tried it yet!

I don't know how the conversation got to this point, but she mentioned how she was thinking about life before kids and how much sleep she used to get. Like oodles of sleep. And it made me think...mmm, sleep. So true, sleep was abundant before children. I slept so much, I got tired from all the sleeping. Then we thought about all the other things that were simply abundant and far under appreciated before we had children - like collagen in our faces, spring in our step, gravity-defiance in our bodies, and time. We had so much time on our hands...for movies and dinner with friends and haircuts. Oh my God, I just realized that I haven't had a haircut since August! How is it that these beautiful, amazing, angelic (when they're sleeping) creatures have stripped us of these things.

Then we thought - it's not just the babies. She told me about some issue with filing her taxes and interest on savings bonds. I told her about refinancing our house and how much extra paperwork is required because Ryan is self-employed. And I realized that, while I blame these babies for the bags that reside under my eyes, the dark circles, my post-partum funky hair, the new found body-sag (I'll spare you the details), and the general "old face" as my friend calls it, it is not only the babies that are responsible. It's this whole "being a grown-up" business that is making us not so aesthetically pleasing. While my being - my soul - the thing that gets filled up with love and joy and happiness - is in relatively good shape (yeah, yeah, the anxiety issues sometimes get in the way of that. I'm choosing to ignore those issues for the moment), my body looks like I got hit by a truck and was left of the side of the road to be slowly picked at by crows. Not.really.exaggerating...

Being a grown-up is completely exhausting. Paying bills? Exhausting. Grocery shopping? Exhausting. Raising children? Exhausting. Trying to find clothes in my closet that still fit my body after having two babies? EXHAUSTING! Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot to do about that...I can't stop being a grown-up.

And so we hope. We hope that someday when our kids are grown, when they no longer cry from their cribs because they are lonely in the middle of the night, or call out for us because they have to go to the bathroom and don't want to go by themselves, we will get more restful sleep. Right? Somebody please tell me this is true. When our arms are no longer full of squirmy little baby bodies that want to be held, no they want to play, no they want to be held, no they want to play (Up or down kid! Up or down. I'm not an elevator!), we hope that we will find time to make these bodies strong (and sexy) again. Ummm...stop laughing. I realize that this might not ever be possible, but a girl can dream. And so maybe five (ok 10) years from now, we will look rested and actually be rested...and we can be grateful that we're not the new mom's who we see in the shoe store, looking like they haven't slept in a week or showered in even longer, as their child tries on ten pairs of shoes and the baby gnaws on the Teva display.

We hope. And in the meantime I'm beginning to think that the next 5 years are going to fly by. I have most certainly reached the point in my life where the "days are long and the years are short." I mean how is Brody almost 5? F-I-V-E!

We ended the conversation laughing at ourselves saying, "if we had only known..." But after I got of the phone I thought about it. If I had only known...what? What would I have done? Not had kids? Not built a house? Not grown up? If I had only known...I would probably be exactly where I am. Exhausted. Pretending that my pre-baby clothes are still appropriate for this post-baby body. Hair in a ponytail hoping that my co-workers can't tell I played Little People and Legos before work instead of showering. If I had only known...I guess I probably couldn't have planned it any better.

And now I know.

Spring Fever

I spend hours at work writing presentations on how our changing climate impacts the water resources of the state, ways to manage stormwater and strategies to adapt to all of these changes. And sometimes I worry about the quality of life that my children and their children and their children will have if we fail to do something now. I'm a worrier if you haven't figured that out already. I have to admit though, while these 70 degree March days sound a little alarm in the back of my mind ("global warming, global warming"), I am sure loving the warmer weather!

We have been battling a double ear infection with little Jameson this past week and no one has gotten much sleep in the house (besides Brody who can apparently sleep through a train running through his room - or his little brother's incessant screaming - same difference). So I have been incredibly grateful for these sunny days and warmer temps to give me a little boost of energy when I feel rather zombie-like.

Brody has loved being able to wear short sleeves to school and we have been loving that it is still light enough after dinner to go out and play before bedtime.

So here are a few pictures before the warm weather hit.

I'd like to pretend that Brody is doing a better job not being so bossy about the way that Jameson plays with his toys, but alas he is the first child and a serious rule follower. I believe he was explaining to JJ the proper way to pop open the boxes...and I believe this was right before JJ said to hell with proper and ripped the toy from Brody's bossy little fingers! Ah, brothers!

And my little boy blue...

I realize this picture is blurry, but this is how I see him most of the time now. He's a busy little man, crawling, climbing and getting into trouble at warp speed!

Did I mention he likes to climb? This is his way of getting us to stop what we're doing and take him on a "tall tour" to see all the pictures on the walls and look out all the windows. It's quite effective really since you can't just walk away when a baby is clinging to your ankles. 

Tucker's new napping place. We have discovered (as has Tucker) that the afternoon sun shines directly on the basket of dish towels. While this makes a cozy retreat for Tucker, we've been noticing cat hair on our clean dishes. I apologize in advance to anyone who comes over for a meal.

And this boy...he's standing flat-footed (well one of them) on the floor. Do you see how tall he is? When we moved into the house just a little over two years ago his head was barely above the counter. Where did my little boy go?

Looks like they get along huh?

It's usually more like this...

But occasionally, we get this!

And this was a nice treat for Brody. Getting to read with Pa. Brody has always loved to look at books and has carefully turned pages since he was a teeny tiny baby. He loves being read to. I think he and Pa sat for over an hour reading books about snakes and lizards.

And here are some pictures from our evening out last night. You can see that Jameson was enjoying himself and looking fairly well recovered from his ear infections...so why all the crying at 3am you might ask? Someone liked sleeping on Daddy the two nights before. Dr. Ferber can you hear me?

Up...

 ...up...

 ...and away!

 A few signs that spring is coming! Our tulips are waking up!

And so is the lilac

So it kind of looks like a tornado went through our back yard, but that was just Ryan! Actually, it was the guy who Ryan hired to take down the towering pine trees that were a little too close for comfort with all of the wind and ice storms we've been having (see...global warming!)

Brody loves to go exploring in the back yard though. Who knew sticks could be so much fun?

And the fresh air did JJ some good too!

Then it was on to swinging...which I realized is nearly impossible to capture well on my camera. Oh well, the joy comes through even if the details don't!

Sometimes you can't be bothered with things like bathroom breaks!

And Sammie and Brody enjoying the last bit of sunshine before heading to bed!